The study investigates the teleconnection between the central Pacific and East Asia during extreme phases of El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycles, focusing on the lower troposphere. The key system that links warm (cold) events in the eastern Pacific to weak (strong) East Asian winter monsoons is an anomalous lower-tropospheric anticyclone (cyclone) in the western North Pacific. This anticyclone, which forms rapidly in late fall when a strong warm or cold event matures, persists until the following spring or early summer, causing anomalously wet (dry) conditions along the East Asian polar front. The authors use atmospheric general circulation and intermediate models to show that the Philippine Sea anticyclone results from a Rossby-wave response to suppressed convective heating, induced by both in situ ocean surface cooling and remote subsidence forced by central Pacific warming. The development of the anticyclone is coincident with the enhancement of local sea surface cooling, and both anomalies propagate slowly eastward. The positive thermodynamic feedback between the anticyclone and sea surface cooling, in the presence of mean northeasterly trades, is responsible for the persistence of the teleconnection. The rapid establishment of the Philippine Sea wind and SST anomalies implies extratropical-tropical interactions through cold surge-induced exchanges of surface buoyancy flux. Central Pacific warming plays a crucial role in setting up a favorable environment for the anticyclone-SST interaction and midlatitude-tropical interaction in the western North Pacific.The study investigates the teleconnection between the central Pacific and East Asia during extreme phases of El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycles, focusing on the lower troposphere. The key system that links warm (cold) events in the eastern Pacific to weak (strong) East Asian winter monsoons is an anomalous lower-tropospheric anticyclone (cyclone) in the western North Pacific. This anticyclone, which forms rapidly in late fall when a strong warm or cold event matures, persists until the following spring or early summer, causing anomalously wet (dry) conditions along the East Asian polar front. The authors use atmospheric general circulation and intermediate models to show that the Philippine Sea anticyclone results from a Rossby-wave response to suppressed convective heating, induced by both in situ ocean surface cooling and remote subsidence forced by central Pacific warming. The development of the anticyclone is coincident with the enhancement of local sea surface cooling, and both anomalies propagate slowly eastward. The positive thermodynamic feedback between the anticyclone and sea surface cooling, in the presence of mean northeasterly trades, is responsible for the persistence of the teleconnection. The rapid establishment of the Philippine Sea wind and SST anomalies implies extratropical-tropical interactions through cold surge-induced exchanges of surface buoyancy flux. Central Pacific warming plays a crucial role in setting up a favorable environment for the anticyclone-SST interaction and midlatitude-tropical interaction in the western North Pacific.